Christopher Whiteside is a Conservative activist who lives and works in Copeland with his wife and family.
Chris is a recent chairman of Cumbria Conservatives, a former member of Copeland Borough council, and an Honorary Alderman of the City and District of St Albans. He is a former Conservative parliamentary candidate, and stood in the 2015 Mayoral election in Copeland.

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Another day, another 20% lead ....

Yet another opinion poll, this time by YouGov in today's Sunday times, shows David Cameron’s Tories with a 20-point lead over Labour.

Conservative support is shown at 45%, marginally down from the peak of 47% earlier in the summer, while Labour’s support is at 25%, where it has been stuck every month since May. The Liberal Democrats are up from 16% to 18%.

The most striking thing about this is the way it produces so little response, suggesting that 20% leads for the Conservatives over Labour are now regarded as normal. What a change from the first ten years of the present government's term. Journalists looking for something encouraging to say form Labour's perspective now have to come up with something as desperate as this line from the Sunday Times article

"Labour’s ratings and those of the prime minister himself are getting no better, but at least they have stopped getting worse."

If that's the best gloss they can put on a 20% poll deficit ...

David Cameron’s ratings are also still well ahead of Brown’s. A net 32% of voters think he is doing a good job as opposition leader, while a net 55% say Brown is doing badly as prime minister.

The next election may still be nearly two years away and a lot can happen in that time. Only a fool, which David Cameron is not, would regard the election as being in the bag. But the Conservatives have everything to play for while Labour are getting increasingly desperate - and it shows.